The road to Saint Petersburg

We spent only a week in Moscow, when suddenly the opportunity to visit Saint Petersburg appeared miraculously. Andrei — a friend of Sasha — decided to visit Saint Petersburg (which he called just “Peter”) for a weekend. Andrei planned to visit his acquaintances there and invited us with him.

The beginning of June is the peak of the tourist season in Saint Petersburg, since there is a time of white nights. At this time, all the hotels have high prices and places must be booked for many months in advance. However, this is not about us. You know, Goa is a truly wonderful place, as not only Andrei met Sasha there but also Kostia, a native Petersburger who invited us to stay in his apartment. In this magical way, we had two major issues resolved: with transport at both ends in a friend’s car and with accommodation in Saint Petersburg in the apartment of another friend. Bravo, Goa!

I have long noticed that I have the gift to embody desires. It is enough for me to want something and this is sure to happen. I dreamed of a handsome blue-eyed husband and got him — it was Sasha. I wanted to travel; hence, wandering became my destiny. I dreamed of seeing Russia; thus, I ended up in Moscow. I dreamed of seeing Saint Petersburg, so here we are going there with Sasha and his friend.

The distance from Moscow to Saint Petersburg is about 800 km; it takes about twelve hours by car. However, everything, of course, depends on the time at which you leave. On Friday evening, in the summer, all Muscovites go to the country; thus, the roads are blocked. Therefore, it may take six hours only to get to the borders of the Moscow region. This is exactly what happened to us: we left Moscow in the early evening and left the borders of the Moscow region late at night.

Without stopping, Andrei drove the car and we took a nap. However, we didn’t sleep much, since there are surprisingly short nights in Russia in June. This is not the case in India, as it is about the same length of day and night throughout the whole year: half — light, half — dark. In Moscow, everything is different, as there are very long winter nights and very short nights in summer: it gets dark at 11 o’clock in the evening and at 2 o’clock in the morning it starts to get light. However, this applies only to Moscow. Soon I had to see what the white nights in Saint Petersburg are.

Of course, on the night of travelling in the car, we could not sleep; in this regard, it is much more convenient to travel by train: in the evening, you fell asleep in Moscow, and in the morning you woke up already in Saint Petersburg. Nevertheless, for me, a huge plus was that, thanks to the early dawn, I could admire the Russian nature, which I had only seen through the window of the porthole on an airplane.

Russian nature fascinated me with its beauty. I have never seen so many green forests and fields. Most of all I was struck by the immensity of open spaces not inhabited by people. In India, I got used to the fact that people live everywhere. In India, I almost did not meet the roads along which there would be no ubiquitous building: cities are replaced by towns, towns — by villages; just people, people, people everywhere...

In Russia, almost all the way, we drove through forests and fields; small cities, villages, and very tiny villages only occasionally flashed before our eyes. I even could not imagine that somewhere on our planet there are so few inhabited spaces with such a stunningly beautiful nature!

We arrived in Saint Petersburg around nine in the morning. At the request of Sasha, Andrei landed us at the Moscow railway station. Now we were to meet with Andrei only on the evening of the next day for the return trip to Moscow.